LAS CRUCES, NM – The New Mexico State Women’s Volleyball team started off their home schedule in dramatic fashion, losing to North Dakota in five sets.

New Mexico State University began its home schedule by hosting the first game of the NM State Springhill Suites Invitational, which will go through Saturday, Sept. 2. NMSU, now 2-2, battled with a good North Dakota team (5-1). The Fighting Hawks are coming off wins against Florida A&M and Louisiana Tech.

A visibly upset NMSU Coach Mike Jordan was unavailable for comment to The Round Up following the loss. Jordan was however quoted in a press release by the athletics department.  “North Dakota played pretty good defense,” Jordan said. We couldn’t hit the ball in the court in the last three sets and you can;t do that against a good team.”

The Aggies came into tonight’s home opener after defeating Rhode Island and Valparaiso, but falling to Notre Dame in the Golden Dome Invitational in South Bend, Indiana.

NMSU came out strong in the first two sets, winning both with scores of 25-22 and 25-8. But North Dakota proved to be too much for the Aggies in the final three sets.

The Aggies rallied back to win the first set after they tied the game up at 17 points. After that, NMSU went on a run and forced the Fighting Hawks to use both of their timeouts. Senior outside hitter, Kassandra Tohm led the team in the first set with 4 kills. While junior setter, Briana Ainsworth led the team in the first set with 6 assists.

The second set was much more lopsided as the Aggies went up early 12-5 and never looked back after that. NMSU even had some of their young players get some playing time. They won the second set 25-8.

NMSU went into halftime with all the momentum but started the third set sloppy with errors and keeping UND in the game.

The Aggies lost their two sets to none lead with a close third set that was eventually won by UND. NMSU came within one point in the third set, only trailing 15-14. The Fighting Hawks went on to win the third set with a score of 25-21, and never looked back after that.

The Aggies fought back and forth in the final two sets with UND but never could maintain a lead.

During the match there was a total of 16 ties and 8 lead changes. The fourth set alone included 6 ties and 3 lead changes.

NMSU lost the fifth and final set with a score of 15-10.

Senior Sasha-Lee Thomas led the Aggies with a total of 14 kills and freshman Natalie Mikels led the team with 21 assists.

The NMSU Women’s Volleyball team will look to bounce back and will be back in action Friday, Sept. 1, where they will face off against number eleven UCLA. The match will be at the Pan American Center and will start at 7 p.m.